When the rains didn’t fall and the snows didn’t stay, life in the hard-luck Central Valley got harder. Small towns died. Dreams dried up. And the very ground was sinking.

Pumping the earth dry
Up and down these rural Madera roads with fractional names — Avenue 19, Avenue 19 1/2, Avenue 20 — nut trees were going in, wells were going dry and farmers were putting debt-heavy bets on a crop that requires twice as much water as thirsty cotton.

James Turner thought the folks buying up swaths of land for orchards — some of them investment fund managers who had never farmed a day in their lives — were missing the bigger picture.

“You pump all the water out, the land collapses, see? All those pockets where the water is supposed to go, they won’t be there when it does rain,” he said.

“I’ve seen so much stupid in my years that I can’t remember all of it. But pumping the earth dry? We’re killing ourselves, plain and simple.”

While I applaud the settlement with the victim, the now ex police officer should do some jail time. It’s becoming more and more clear we are over-protecting officers guilty of excess force. Even in a diverse and progressive state like California.

A California Highway Patrol officer caught on video repeatedly punching a woman on the 10 Freeway earlier this year has agreed to resign, the agency said late Wednesday.

Lumberheadre: #2 Rightwingconspirator I'd give you more updings if I could. Here's an shooting incident I just read about: "Why did you shoot me?" Cop tells him to get his license, guy reaches into vehicle for his license, cop shoots ...

CABAZON - Among the windmills and creosote bushes of San Gorgonio Pass, a nondescript beige building stands flanked by water tanks. A sign at the entrance displays the logo of Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water, with water flowing from a snowy mountain. Semi-trucks rumble in and out through the gates, carrying load after load of bottled water.

The plant, located on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians’ reservation, has been drawing water from wells alongside a spring in Millard Canyon for more than a decade. But as California’s drought deepens, some people in the area question how much water the plant is bottling and whether it’s right to sell water for profit in a desert region where springs are rare and underground aquifers have been declining.

“Why is it possible to take water from a drought area, bottle it and sell it?” asked Linda Ivey, a Palm Desert real estate appraiser who said she wonders about the plant’s use of water every time she drives past it on Interstate 10.

“It’s hard to know how much is being taken,” Ivey said. “We’ve got to protect what little water supply we have.”

Over the years, the Morongo tribe has clashed with one local water district over the bottling operation, and has tried to fend off a long-running attempt by state officials to revoke a license for a portion of the water rights. Those disputes, however, don’t seem to have put a dent in an operation that brings the Morongo undisclosed amounts of income through an agreement with the largest bottled water company in the United States.

The plant is operated by Nestle Waters North America Inc., which leases the property from the tribe and uses it to package Arrowhead spring water as well as purified water sold under the brand Nestle Pure Life.

The Desert Sun has repeatedly asked the company for a tour of the bottling plant since last year, but those requests have not been granted. The company and the Morongo tribe also did not respond to requests for information about the amounts of water bottled each year.

Jayleiare: #13 1Peter G1 Do you recall telling the Pie-onist Overlord that you knew more about Detroit than she does? How'd that work out for you? You're making a similar mistake with me, though I don't normally identify as, nor ...

It’s pretty clear the drone in the video looks nothing like a Draganflyer, in fact, based on photographs posted by dailynews.com, the drone is clearly a DJI Phantom (note the DJI label on its hull and the advanced “spy tech” duct tape). The drone wasn’t using a sophisticated spy camera, just a GoPro. So congratulations internet commenters and sloppy bloggers, you’ve proven you don’t know a thing about drones or how to use Google. And congratulations Kings fans, you managed to ruin another fan’s night and his $959 remote controlled helicopter, you also committed a crime.

Given the value of the property damaged, the act of knocking down the drone may be punishable under state vandalism laws. In California, the punishment would be up to $10,000 and up to one year in county jail. Furthermore, throwing objects at a remote controlled helicopter that is otherwise safely flying above a crowd, clearly constitutes reckless conduct that creates a risk of physical injury to another, in most states that is punishable by a hefty fine and a jail sentence. If someone were actually injured by the flying drone, the person who knocked it out of the sky might face reckless assault charges, which carries with it a sentence of up to 1 year in jail and a $4,000 fine in California, and a similar punishment in most other jurisdictions.

There is no good reason for California’s budget to do anything but improve our credit rating.

California Governor Jerry Brown, running for an unprecedented fourth term, says that if he can curb his fellow Democrats’ spending dreams, the most-indebted state may win its highest credit rating in five years.

Brown and lawmakers are pushing separate versions of a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Democrats who control the legislature want to spend more of the surplus money California is raking in from capital gains and $7 billion of higher income and sales taxes that voters approved in 2012. Brown says the state must first put aside money for a rainy day and pay down its debts.

“Our credit rating is going up,” Brown, 76, told reporters in Sacramento last week after he won a primary election to advance to the general in November. “If we get the right kind of budget, it’ll go up again.”

Governor: Jerry Brown. Most of California’s challenges remain before us, but Brown has been able to take action on many of them, moving the state from deep financial distress to a welcome, if temporary, surplus. Voters would be wise to keep him on the job.

Lt. governor: Gavin Newsom. Newsom has been unable to do much more with the office than have his predecessors. Still, he’s a competent understudy and better suited to assume the role of governor than any of his challengers.

Secretary of state: Pete Peterson. Peterson, a Republican, is the candidate best suited for the kinds of tasks entrusted to this office: safeguarding and promoting elections, and making campaign and business data available to the public in a useful form.

Controller: Ashley Swearengin. Fresno Mayor Swearengin has demonstrated her skill in leading her city through its economic crisis, and is the candidate most likely to perform well as the state’s chief financial officer.

I still think a way can be found to ensure better disclosure of at risk individuals to get them help and keep them away from guns. These people have one proposal, here for discussion.

But there are select times when serious mental illness does increase the risk that an individual may be dangerous. Evidence demonstrates that people who have a serious mental illness in an acute stage and are not engaging in necessary treatment may be at an elevated risk of violence, especially if they have a history of violence and are abusing drugs or alcohol. Moreover, mental illnesses such as depression significantly increase the risk of suicide, which accounts for more than half of firearm deaths each year.

Instituting a Gun Violence Restraining Order in California would allow for specific interventions during critical times. In the case of the Isla Vista tragedy, the gunman’s mother had voiced concerns that brought sheriff’s deputies to her son’s apartment in late April. As that shows far too well, family members often know best when a loved one is in crisis, and in most cases want to help them. But that takes time, and having easy access to a gun — or multiple guns, in the Isla Vista case — during a potentially dangerous period increases an individual’s ability to do harm.

A Gun Violence Restraining Order would allow a judge to temporarily stop an individual from buying or possessing a firearm. The judge would examine the situation and consider all the factors suggesting that the individual was a risk to himself and others. If granted by the judge, the restraining order would have to be reassessed after a short period to restore the individual’s firearm rights if he or she is no longer at serious risk of harming himself, herself or others.

Would a Gun Violence Restraining Order law have prevented the Isla Vista killings? It’s impossible to know, but it might have helped. For 20 years, California has led the way for our nation in terms of enacting smart, evidence-based policies to curb the gun violence epidemic. Enacting such a restraining order would be the next step in what is already a proud legacy.

Balanced fiscal conservatism is a wise policy. I’ll be voting for Brown BTW. The moderate Republican candidate is still not the right guy IMO, but seems a bit of relief from Tea Party politics. However appearances are always deceiving in political campaigns.

It works for California

“It is just common sense to follow the smart growth path laid out by the governor to ensure balanced budgets,” said Senate Republican leader Robert Huff of Diamond Bar. “Repeating past mistakes by spending money we just don’t have is unwise….It will be a big mistake by the Democrats if we end up talking about cuts and taxes again so soon after getting another revenue windfall.”

Brown offered the first clue of his stance on budget negotiations earlier this week, when he said the revenue forecast from his finance staff was the most reliable, and “that’s the one I’m living with.”

He coupled his cautious approach with a reminder that California has run budget deficits for 11 of the last 15 years. Trying to forecast revenue is an extremely risky proposition, he added.

The trouble is that taxes, regulations and business climate appear to have had nothing to do with Toyota’s move. It came down to a simple matter of geography and a plan for corporate consolidation, Toyota’s North American chief told The Times. And in the big picture, California’s and Texas’ economies are growing at a similar pace, with corporate relocations — in either direction — representing only a tiny slice of job growth in both states.

“It may seem like a juicy story to have this confrontation between California and Texas, but that was not the case,” said Jim Lentz, Toyota’s North American chief executive.

Toyota left California to move its company’s brainpower, now divided among offices in three states, into one headquarters close to the company’s manufacturing base, primarily in the South.

“It doesn’t make sense to have oversight of manufacturing 2,000 miles away from where the cars were made,” Lentz said. “Geography is the reason not to have our headquarters in California.”

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